Casino ownership of two Bossier City, Louisiana properties is changing. Los Angeles-based Peninsula Pacific, through PGP Investors LLC and its wholly owned subsidiary, Legends Holdings LLC, acquired Legends Gaming LLC and all ownership shares of Louisiana Riverboat Gaming Partnership, owners of DiamondJacks Casino and Hotel. And PCI Gaming, the gaming arm of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama, announced it will buy the Margaritaville Resort Casino pending regulatory approval. The prices of both transactions were not disclosed.
DiamondJacks Casino had been owned by creditors since emerging from bankruptcy in 2013. M. Brent Stevens of Peninsula Pacific said the company bought DiamondJacks’ debt late last year, noting, “We view this moment of now acquiring the equity and control of Diamond Jacks as the natural next step to enable us to improve the operations and to assess the property and license with the fundamental goal of maximizing their long term potential for the benefit of our investors, the employees of Diamond Jacks, our customers and the local and state. In the short term, our goal and commitment is to improve the existing operations at the facility.” Stevens added the company will “identify the potential operational and physical improvements to the facility to create a better customer experience.”
DiamondJacks offers a gaming floor with more than 1,000 slot machines and 20 table games, a 500-plus-room hotel, dining and entertainment venues. It’s not certain if Peninsula Pacific will rebrand the property or eliminate employees.
Also in Bossier City, PCI Gaming Authority, the gaming arm of the Alabama-based Poarch Band of Creek Indians, will buy the Margaritaville Resort Casino by the end of the year, pending Louisiana Gaming Control Board approval. PCI also has entered into a separate partnership with the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California for a new casino outside Reno, Nevada.
Currently PCI operates Wind Creek Casinos in Montgomery, Wetumpka and Atmore, Alabama, plus greyhound parks in Mobile and Pensacola, Florida and an entertainment center in Gretna, Florida, which is the subject of a state Supreme Court case that could expand gaming in Florida.
The 500,000 square foot retail, entertainment and dining complex overlooking the Red River has a 395-room hotel, six restaurants and cafes, a spa and a concert hall and more than 1,000 slot machines and table games. Located on the Louisiana Boardwalk, Margaritaville features a 500,000 square foot retail, entertainment and dining complex, with a 26,600 square foot casino offering 1,200 slot machines and 50 table games, including high limit gaming areas. The resort includes a 395-room hotel, six food and/or beverage venues, a spa, fitness center and pool, meeting and conference space, a 1,000-seat multi-use performance hall and parking for more than 1,500 vehicles.
Since it opened in June 2013, the property has won numerous awards in design and service categories from several regional gaming and hospitality publications, and has been the most profitable casino in the Shreveport/Bossier City market since opening.
Tribal Chairwoman Stephanie Bryan said, “PCI’s success has been key to our ability to improve opportunities and increase services to our tribal members. This acquisition will further our goal of building a great company committed to the communities in which we operate. We look forward to becoming an important contributing member of the Bossier City/Shreveport community.”
Bossier Casino Venture Chief Executive Officer Paul Alanis noted, “I am extremely supportive of this transaction as I believe the Poarch Creek will continue our philosophy of quality customer service and their ownership will be of great long term benefit to our employees, our customers and the community.”
Wind Creek Hospitality President and Chief Executive Officer Jay Dorris added, “We are proud of the quality and attention to customer service that characterizes our three successful gaming operations in the State of Alabama. We believe that Margaritaville Resort Casino in Bossier City is a great fit with our operating philosophy and will provide us the opportunity to further establish Wind Creek Hospitality as the premier operator of first class casino resorts in the Southeast.”
In addition, PCI now partners with Nevada’s Washoe tribe in their 13,500 square foot casino with 130 games, a restaurant and bar in Gardnerville, near Lake Tahoe. More than half of the 70 employees are Washoe tribal members. Chair Neil Mortimer said, “Opening a casino and partnering with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians is another step toward the Washoe Tribe’s long term goal of economic self-sufficiency. The partnership between our tribe and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians of Alabama is the first of its kind.”
Arthur Mothershed, vice president of business development for Wind Creek Hospitality, commented, “Our tribe knows all too well the challenges faced by the Washoe Tribe. Fortunately in the last 10 years we have been able to overcome many of those obstacles, and we are both honored and excited to have had the opportunity to share our good fortune and knowledge with the Washoe Tribe as their partners on this vitally important project.”
Back in Alabama, U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne recently introduced a bill to clarify that the Poarch Band of Creek Indians does not owe $23 million in back taxes, as Escambia County has claimed, because the tribe’s land is held in trust by the federal government and is not subject to property taxes.
Last year a federal court ruled in favor of the tribe, and Escambia County filed an appeal.
Byrne said the tribe approached him for help when he was in 2013. “I’m not taking anybody’s side. It’s simply providing clarification and is not changing the status quo, because the status quo is that no taxes are owed,” Byrne said. He added he understands Escambia County’s financial pressures but the tribe’s land trust recognizes “the ill treatment that Native American tribes received at the hands of the federal government.”
Byrne’s bill also would have an impact in Florida, since Governor Rick Scott has questioned the legality of the tribe’s 1-acre plot there and has refused to negotiate a Class III gaming compact with the tribe.
